2 Kashrut fraud incidents

2 important relevant (I determine which ones I consider relevant for posting) kashrut updates.. one from the recent Rabbanut newsletter update and the second from the news..

1.
From the Rabbanut:
Crates of bottles of Listerine Mouthwash, imported by Einstein Tzur Imports have been caught with the kashrut emblem of Chug Chasam Sofer Petach Tikva with no Rabbanut certification. The Chug Chasam Sofer denies having given any authorization on this product.
The authentic product bears the OK symbol and can be purchased in Newpharm and other places.

So, watch out when you buy Listerine. make sure its the right stuff

2.
The second kashrut notice is from the news, about a popular cheese store in the Mahane Yehuda shuk.

From JPost:

The Basher cheese purveyor in Jerusalem’s Machane Yehudah, along with its bistro bar located close by, were both raided by the Chief Rabbinate’s National Unit for Kashrut Fraud on Sunday morning and shut down.
The raid was carried out in accordance with a search warrant issued by the courts. 
Basher is a popular delicatessen which sells a large variety of foreign-made, mostly European, cheeses which it has always insisted were kosher, although not necessarily from supervised milk. 
In a statement to the press, the Chief Rabbinate said that “dozens of illegal kashrut certificates for different products were seized” issued by a kashrut authority named “Rabbi Moshe Alloun, France.”
The rabbinate said that this authority was investigated by the rabbinate which concluded that its supervision was “insufficient to market products in Israel as kosher for various reasons.” 
The rabbinate’s investigators found stickers at the Mahane Yehudah site bearing the stamp of Rabbi Moshe Alloun “in a manner that aroused suspicion that the stickers were applied to the products by local [Israeli] staff and not by supervisors at the assembly lines in Europe.”
Additionally, the rabbinate said that on some products the certification bore both the caption “Kosher for Passover” and “Kosher for the days of the year only.”
“Kosher for the days of the year alone” means “Not kosher for Passover” in kashrut jargon, and the rabbinate said that the fact that products bore both labels raised the suspicion that the labels were forged. 
In addition, the rabbinate said that there was a concern that products were labelled as being from supervised milk when they were in fact from unsupervised milk.
At the Basher “Resto Cheese Bar” on Agripas Street, opposite Mahane Yehudah, a kashrut certificate was found issued by “an illegal authority” known as Badatz Keter Hachsharot.”
There was no kashrut supervisor at the site from any authority and some of the cheeses at the site had no kashrut stamp at all and no information as to their origin, the rabbinate said. 
“This is a well known business whose activities aroused suspicion and were specifically directed to the religiously observant community by prominently [displaying] illegal kashrut signs,” said director of the National Unit for Kashrut Fraud Rafi Yohai.
“Neither the restaurant nor the store in the market have a kashrut certificate from a legal rabbinate. Unfortunately, there is a concern that many members of the public were tricked. We hope that in light of the findings that were revealed in today’s raid justice will be done with this company.” 

As always, you decide your own kashrut standards, but the manufacturers and providers must let you know correctly, via certifications and labels, as to what is what...

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